6 strategies for improving insulin sensitivity

6 strategies for improving insulin sensitivity

In this article, I will describe six strategies - five nutrients and one elegantly simple dietary strategy - that will help you improve your insulin sensitivity.

I believe in explaining to people why it makes sense to do something, rather than just telling them to do something. That's why I want to talk briefly about what it means to have good insulin sensitivity. This will "arm" you with the knowledge to help you make sensible nutritional decisions.

What exactly is insulin sensitivity?

What do bouncers and insulin have in common?

Bouncers and insulin do pretty much the same thing. Allow me to explain this in more detail.

The cells that make up your body are a lot like nightclubs - some welcome everyone with open arms, while others are quite exclusive and you have to know someone to get in.

When I was working as a bouncer in my college days, I quickly realized that one of the perks was the attention I got from some girls who knew I could get them and their friends into the club for free and without a long wait in line.

Since I obviously couldn't let everyone in without them having to pay, I had to make the tough decision of who to grant this VIP status to and who to tell that unfortunately I couldn't help them.

Our muscle cells are quite picky when it comes to who they let in. Nutrients circulating in the bloodstream can't just say "Hey, I'm going to swim into that muscle cell and see what's going on." No, that's not how muscles work.

To get into a muscle cell, it can really help if you can pull insulin to your side. If you can do this, then you can be pretty sure of gaining entry, as insulin is like the top bouncer in a club. If you're on a first-name basis with Insulin, then you're practically already inside.

Even though bouncers are notoriously callous, they have human feelings too. If you bump into a bouncer after his stripper girlfriend has just cheated on him, he's more likely to be less receptive to your desire to get in, making it harder to get into the club.

On the other hand, if you bump into him after his favorite team has just won the Super Bowl, he'll probably be friendlier and more likely to let you and your friends into the club without admission.

If you understand this bouncer analogy, then you will also understand the issue of insulin sensitivity. Sensitive bouncers let more people into the club. Sensitive insulin receptors let more nutrients (e.g. glucose, amino acids, creatine) into your muscle cells to keep the anabolic party going.

With this fundamental understanding, let's take a look at five ways to maximize your insulin sensitivity.

1 - Chromium

If you've been weight training for a few years and know your way around this area, chromium may seem a little old school at first, but just because something isn't new doesn't mean it isn't effective.

Chromium supplementation has been repeatedly shown to improve insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance. This effect goes so far that in many people even type 2 diabetes can be cured (1). This is due to the fact that a chromium deficiency can lead to the development of type 2 diabetes.

Chromium is so linked to insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance that some nutritionists refer to chromium as the Glucose Tolerance Factor (GTF).

Doses between 200 and 600 mcg per day appear to be both safe and effective.

As with any mineral or trace element, taking too much can lead to problems. For this reason, you should never fall into the "more is better" mentality when it comes to supplementing with chromium or other minerals.

I tend to use a common sense approach when supplementing with chromium (and any other mineral or trace element) - if you haven't used it for a while, then you're more likely to be deficient. It then makes sense to fill this nutritional gap by taking it as a supplement - temporarily perhaps even at a dosage that is at the higher end of the scale.

After a few weeks of supplementation, you should then reduce the dosage so that it is at the lower end of the scale, as you are now only concerned with maintaining healthy levels.

You should also consider taking a break from supplementing chromium from time to time. I find that it works well to take such a break while on vacation. This also makes traveling a little easier and you can give your body a supplement break.

As far as the different forms of chromium are concerned, experts agree that although the widely used chromium picolinate is a viable form, the amino acid chelates of chromium, where chromium is bound to an amino acid, are the best form, as this amino acid binding promotes the absorption of chromium in the body.

2 - Vanadium

Vanadium is another old school mineral that plays an important role in optimizing glucose tolerance (2).

I remember when I first started taking vanadium in the nineties. Back then, there was a lot of hype about vanadium and its ability to create a massive, skin-bursting pump. I was extremely skeptical at first, but I have to admit that I was impressed by the effects.

Without having changed anything else, after a few days of supplementing with vanadyl sulphate in the gym I noticed a much better pump and my training partner, who was also playing guinea pig, was no different. It was as if my muscles were storing more glycogen.

When I later learned more about the underlying science, I realized that I was probably storing more muscle glycogen due to an improvement in my insulin sensitivity as a result of taking vanadium.

However, I have to say that I never felt that almost immediate increase in my training pump again when I went back to supplementing with vanadium afterwards. Looking back, this makes sense and also explains why some people swore by vanadium while others didn't really feel anything.

If you have a vanadium deficiency - especially a severe deficiency - then you will most likely feel the positive effects of supplementation. If, on the other hand, you are not vanadium deficient - or at least not severely deficient - then you probably won't feel much - or anything at all.

I can say with a fair amount of certainty that when I first started taking vanadium, I suffered from a significant deficiency. When I compensated for this deficiency, I could literally feel the results of this.

Given the fact that I never took vanadium again for an extended period of time, it was unlikely that I would feel a significant effect - which is actually a good thing.

With many supplements, such as vitamin C or vitamin D, we know that they have benefits even if we can't formally feel them working. I believe this is also the case with vanadium.

Personally, I generally take 60 to 100 mcg of vanadium per day in the form of chelated vanadium. This dosage, combined with regular supplement breaks, seems to be conservative enough to prevent potential toxicity while still maintaining good insulin sensitivity.

3 - Cinnamon

If you're anything like me, the news that cinnamon has a fairly potent glucose-controlling effect (3) won't be particularly impressive. "Hmmm...that's quite nice" will be the kind of reaction to this that I'm talking about.

But imagine for a moment that you had just heard about a brand new supplement called CGM1029 that helps move nutrients preferentially into skeletal muscle and away from fat tissue.

That sounds more interesting!

Just because something is new and rare and sold by a pharmaceutical company doesn't mean we shouldn't find it exciting. But we also shouldn't let the "boring" nature of cinnamon prevent us from realizing its tremendous benefits.

While I wouldn't disagree with your logic if you decide to take cinnamon capsules, while I use good old cinnamon, I prefer the old-fashioned way - in my oatmeal and with other foods.

(Surprisingly, cinnamon tastes really good on a meatloaf. I know that sounds really weird, but don't dismiss this idea until you've tried it).

Since cinnamon is not a mineral, I don't think it's that important to cycle cinnamon. But I always lean towards moderation when in doubt.

4 - Alpha lipoic acid

Alpha lipoic acid, or ALA for short - not to be confused with the omega 3 fatty acid alpha linolenic acid - is a truly great nutrient.

ALA not only helps maintain (or improve) insulin sensitivity, but also acts as a potent antioxidant. It's no exaggeration to say that ALA is close to being a true supplement superhero.

However, if you look at studies on ALA (aka thioctic acid), you'll find that some of these studies point to a more neutral effect, while others seem to show amazing benefits. Well, as it turns out, there are two naturally occurring isomers (R-ALA and L-ALA), with the R isoimer appearing to be the more potent (4).

For this reason, if you want to supplement with ALA, make sure you use R-ALA

Note: As my scientific understanding of nutrition evolves, I am increasingly trying to harness nutrient synergies and use fewer single, isolated ingredients.

As with cinnamon, I don't worry too much about taking too much R-ALA or using it too frequently, but I still take breaks from it for caution's sake.

5 - Cyanidin 3-glucoside

If ALA is almost a supplement superhero, then cyanidin 3-glucoside is the real superstar.

And Cyanidin 3-glucoside (aka C3G) is as groundbreaking and innovative as a supplement ingredient can be - there's nothing old school about this ingredient!

Cyanidin 3-glucoside (cyanidin bound to glucose) is a specific anthocyanin that has powerful physiological effects. Anthocyanins give fruit and berries their strong dark color. Even if this property is anything but exciting for us, its physiological effects are all the more so.

First of all, C3G appears to have anti-carcinogenic properties (6). While avoiding cancer may not be one of your New Year's resolutions, I think you'll agree that anything that could help us stay healthy is a bonus.

And this is where things start to get really interesting - C3G has quite potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.

That alone would be a great health benefit, but C3G has anti-inflammatory effects on fat cells. This is great because inflamed fat cells tend to send the wrong signals, which unfortunately is terrible for your body composition.

By reducing inflammation and repairing the faulty signals, overall glucose tolerance (and insulin sensitivity) is dramatically improved.

I've been aware of the increasing amount of research supporting the positive effects of C3G for some time, but it's the feedback from users that really impresses me.

One guy I know who took C3G had his blood tested and his fasting blood sugar had dropped from 117 - which is considered pre-diabetic - to a normal and healthy fasting blood sugar of 77 after 6 weeks of taking C3G. That is amazing!

Even though as strength athletes we are primarily interested in better insulin sensitivity for reasons of improving body composition, let's not forget that the same things that can help prevent or treat type II diabetes will typically help improve body composition as well. This is the reason that many of the nutritional strategies that help type 2 diabetics also work for bodybuilders and figure athletes.

6 - Carbohydrate management

An often overlooked strategy for improving insulin sensitivity is to manipulate your carbohydrate intake.

Bombarding your body with loads of carbohydrates - and especially high-glycemic carbohydrates - day in and day out can desensitize your body to carbohydrates. And this happens by reducing insulin sensitivity.

Going back to our bouncer analogy, if you want to improve your insulin sensitivity, eating large amounts of high-glycemic carbohydrates on a regular basis is about the same as sleeping with the bouncer's girlfriend and expecting him to let you into the club for free - it's not going to happen!

Therefore, even if your goal is to build muscle, you should consider incorporating phases of a low-carb diet. This is a strategy that I have used myself with great success and has proven to be so successful that it has become a regular part of my diet planning.

I am a big fan of cyclical eating strategies for many reasons - I refer to this as cyclical macronutrient intake. One of the reasons for this is that a low-carb diet can make your body more sensitive to carbohydrates again (5). If you then eat more carbohydrates again, your body is more likely to store these carbohydrates as muscle glycogen instead of putting them into your fat stores.

Even if you don't use cyclical macronutrient intake, you should at least aim to eat reasonable amounts of lower GI carbohydrates at all your meals, with the post-workout meal being a possible exception. This will reduce your average daily insulin spike and over time help to improve or at least maintain your insulin sensitivity.

Bonus training tip

The focus of this article is on dietary strategies to improve insulin sensitivity, but there is also a training tip worth sharing.

I don't know if this tip has been validated by scientific research, but I firmly believe that high-volume, glycogen depleting exercise can improve insulin sensitivity over time. Let me explain.

We know through scientific research that high volume training can increase glycogen storage capacity. So let's say you can normally store 350 grams of muscle glycogen (which is a realistic value).

After a few weeks of high volume training that depletes your glycogen reserves, your muscles will develop a better ability to store glycogen - perhaps 400 grams of glucose in the form of glycogen.

This adaptation makes sense as it better prepares your body to get through the next high-volume training stimulus. It also makes sense that our bodies will simultaneously develop a better ability to use glucose (carbohydrates) by improving insulin sensitivity.

And since scientific research has shown that resistance training improves insulin sensitivity, it's not far-fetched to think that higher-volume training might provide more of these benefits.

While I am definitely a fan of high-intensity, low-volume training programs, I doubt that they will improve your insulin sensitivity as much as they could.

For this reason, I recommend occasionally incorporating some high-volume training into your training program to a reasonable extent. For example, you can stick to sets of 10 to 20 reps and do four to five sets of four to five exercises per muscle group.

Yes, that's a lot of volume, but that's what's necessary to adequately deplete your muscle glycogen stores and prepare for the subsequent increase in glycogen storage. As long as you don't perform many of these sets to muscle failure, you should be able to avoid overtraining as long as you don't use this strategy for more than 8 weeks in a row.

I suspect that if you increase your training volume to around 20 sets per muscle group and make sure to consume adequate amounts of carbohydrates, you will find that after a few weeks your muscles will feel fuller and more pumped up without any increase in body fat.

And this effect will be even more pronounced if you have been training at a low volume.

Final words

Optimizing insulin sensitivity is definitely something worth looking into. Better insulin sensitivity will not only help you look better, but will also benefit your health.

Controlling the type and amount of carbohydrates you consume is just common sense health advice, but whether you choose to sprinkle in an insulin friendly supplement here and there is entirely up to you.

Whatever you decide to do, I hope the information in this article has helped you and you now have the knowledge you need to put some steps into action and start improving your insulin sensitivity.

References

1. Diabetes & Metabolism. 2000, 26, 22-27
2. J Clin Endo & Metabolism. 2001 Mar;86(3):1410-1717
3. Diabetes, Obesity, & Metabolism. Dec 2009; Vol11, issue 12, 1100-1113
4. AJP - Endo July 1, 1997 vol. 273 no. 1 E185-E191
5. J Am Coll Nutr. 2004 Apr;23(2):177-84
6. J Biol Chem. 2006 Jun 23;281(25):17359-68. epub 2006 Apr 17.

From Clay Hyght

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/supplements/6-strategies-for-improved-insulin-sensitivity